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XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade) News, Announcements, Reviews, and Impressions Thread

ChubbyHuggs said:
Does anyone know if Catan is any good?
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If you like the actual tabletop game you'll like the XBLA version. If your new to both it has a good tutorial. Easy mode is great for anyone new to the game, when you set the AI to easy you can make almost any trades with the cpu.

I play in a pretty serious Catan tabletop group (I'm currently 3rd in victory points earned for 2013 of 11 people who play weekly games) and a few were introduced through the XBLA version. If your a achievement hunter like myself you should be warned it has 2 hard achievements. Collect 500 victory points lifetime and Collect 1000 victory points lifetime in ranked online matches.
 
wetflame said:
Every time I see those deal of the week posts I remember that I bought Alan Wake: American Nightmare on a deal and put off playing in the hope the DLC goes on sale, and then I remember that it never will.

Can I skip the two DLC episodes and go straight to AN or should I watch them on youtube or something?
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The first DLC should be free with a new copy of Alan Wake. Alan Wake should not be more than $20 brand new at any store.

Alan Wake DLC did go on sale at one point, but I guess it would be a longshot for it to go on sale again. I got the first DLC for free (came with my copy) and I bought the second DLC on sale for 280 points.

The DLC is incredible in my opinion, and I wouldn't recommend watching it on youtube. IMO, if I were you I'd play Alan Wake 1, and then play Alan Wake American Nightmare, and wait for that DLC to go on sale. Even if you wait forever, it's better that you crack and buy the DLC at full price in a couple of months after getting impatient, rather than spoiling the wonderful aspects of that DLC by watching a youtube video.
 
daevv said:
If you like the actual tabletop game you'll like the XBLA version. If your new to both it has a good tutorial. Easy mode is great for anyone new to the game, when you set the AI to easy you can make almost any trades with the cpu.
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Well, I've played the table top a little here and there; I enjoyed it. Figured I'd check out the XB version. I usually achievement out games when I can, so that might be worth the challenge.
 
Montresor said:
The first DLC should be free with a new copy of Alan Wake. Alan Wake should not be more than $20 brand new at any store.

Alan Wake DLC did go on sale at one point, but I guess it would be a longshot for it to go on sale again. I got the first DLC for free (came with my copy) and I bought the second DLC on sale for 280 points.

The DLC is incredible in my opinion, and I wouldn't recommend watching it on youtube. IMO, if I were you I'd play Alan Wake 1, and then play Alan Wake American Nightmare, and wait for that DLC to go on sale. Even if you wait forever, it's better that you crack and buy the DLC at full price in a couple of months after getting impatient, rather than spoiling the wonderful aspects of that DLC by watching a youtube video.
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I should have mentioned, I bought Alan Wake used for £8 so didn't get the first DLC for free, not sure I want to pay full price so will probably keep waiting I guess!
 
I wish they'd reveal the price for Motocross Madness.

800 points would make it a nice impulse buy (like Joyride Turbo) but it's probably gonna be 1200. :/
 
Loch Doun said:
I wish they'd reveal the price for Motocross Madness.

800 points would make it a nice impulse buy (like Joyride Turbo) but it's probably gonna be 1200. :/
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Maaaaan it looks good! I need it to get me through till Dead Island!

Fingers crossed for 800.
 
Picked up Runner2 and while I'm addicted and enjoy it, I have to say it really is not worth 1200MSP. It has 100 levels, sure, but there are only 5 actual graphics (one for each "world") and the "replayability" comes from having to replay every level on easy, normal and hard and getting a semi-random "perfect+" rank on each run. The problem with that is that even on hard, the game doesn't begin to get challenging towards the end... So many hours spent grinding easy world 1 for no reason other than stupid achievements.

overcast said:
So how is The Misadventures of P.B? Worth the 400 points?
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I don't really like it at all, it's just a weaker and more boring Adventures of Shuggy to me. Has way less levels too. Seems like a lot of other people love it, though.
 
 
That's a good list of games, I'd recommend almost all of them to anyone, but mostly I'd recommend everyone get PoP Classic. One of the best games on XBLA; don't sleep on it! I guess I'll be picking up the only game I don't own, Origins, while looking at cheap fighting sticks for 360. Anyone know fighting controllers?

Oh, and while Real Steel isn't exactly an amazing game, I can report that the online community was still very healthy just 2-3 weeks ago. Was trying to boost with my second 360 and kept ending up in random matches constantly, lol.

Slayven said:
Is battlefield online only?
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Yes.
 
Slayven said:
Is battlefield online only?
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Yes, only 3 maps as well (and a 4th air combat map), but they're 3 very good maps and it's incredibly addictive. Plus, a lot of people continue to play it so it's easy to find games.

The trial gives you 1 hour free online, at least, it did back in 2009, lol.
 
LorDjidane said:
The gameplay is hard to get into. Feels really old-school, kinda clunky. For 400 it's a decent platformer but get ready for some anger at the mechanics of the game. Though, after a few hours, it all feels "right".
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What is this tomfoolery? The controls are the opposite of clunky! That's why I love it so much; the controls are so fluid and chaining movements into one screen-filling combo of acrobatics is glorious.

That's the key to really enjoying the game; knowing that you can begin performing your next move before the prince has finished the previous animation. So if you have a ledge with a ledge above it and a wall across the gap, you would walk up to the ledge, turn around and jump upwards in an old PoP... In this one, you run straight at the wall and jump off it, turn around in midair and climb up that ledge all in one animation and one movement of the analog stick.

It reminds me a lot of Galleon -- high fives to the perhaps 2 posters in this thread that remember that one!
 
Slygmous said:
Damn, not even arcade endings to see at least?
It is still pretty tempting, though I can imagine the online is either dead or too powerful.
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If you want endings you might want to get Orgins. 2 games for the same price. But get them both though. 3 games for 1200 isn't a bad thing especially when Marvel Super Heroes is one of those.
 
Slygmous said:
Damn, not even arcade endings to see at least?
It is still pretty tempting, though I can imagine the online is either dead or too powerful.
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That is so funny, I could play MvC2 forever in single player back in 2000. There's 56 characters and it's pretty fun just trying everyone out. Origins does have more single player content, although you might not be able to beat the boss in MvC 1.
 
ReXXXSoprano said:
If you want endings you might want to get Orgins. 2 games for the same price. But get them both though. 3 games for 1200 isn't a bad thing especially when Marvel Super Heroes is one of those.
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akilshohen said:
That is so funny, I could play MvC2 forever in single player back in 2000. There's 56 characters and it's pretty fun just trying everyone out. Origins does have more single player content, although you might not be able to beat the boss in MvC 1.
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Thanks for the advice guys, downloading both demos now to give a spin. The idea of 2 (3) games for the price of one sounds great.

Edit: MvC2 demo is multiplayer only! What were they thinking!?
 
Yup, 1200 confirmed for Motocross Madness.
That's a mistake on Microsoft's part.
Fire Pro Wrestling and Joyride Turbo were both 800. No need for this to be 1200 since it seems to be on the same level as those 2 games.

The good news?
I Am Alive is finally on sale next week!!! (480 points)
 
aku:jiki said:
What is this tomfoolery? The controls are the opposite of clunky! That's why I love it so much; the controls are so fluid and chaining movements into one screen-filling combo of acrobatics is glorious.
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Well as I said, that's what it feels like at the beginning. At least felt that way to me. Because the pacing of the controls is old-school and because I have not been used to it, I felt that.

After a few hours everything feels right though, as I said.
 
whatevermort said:
Anybody know what Counter Strike is like for a community on XBLA? As in, lots of people playing etc?
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The demo comes with 45 minutes of time so maybe try the demo at whatever time of day you expect to play to get a sense of the balance between bots and humans.

I found that most times I tried there were at least a few other humans in the match with me, but rarely full teams on both sides. YMMV
 
Just bought:
Hydro Thunder
Guardian Heroes
Mark of the Ninja
Retro City Rampage

all of those were on sale at times where I was too late. This time though they're mine :D
combined was 2200pts. I was on the fence about mark of the ninja, but after trying the demo I was sold.
I wish the boating in sonic allstars transformed played as well as Hydro Thunder.
 
If you're gonna buy anything, keep in mind the spend $40 get $10 back rewards promo this month.

For me it's looking like...
BB Theater $15
Skulls of the Shogun $10
Motocross Madness $10
I Am Alive $6 next week

All that for $31? Deal!
 
Loch Doun said:
If you're gonna buy anything, keep in mind the spend $40 get $10 back rewards promo this month.

For me it's looking like...
BB Theater $15
Skulls of the Shogun $10
Motocross Madness $10
I Am Alive $6 next week

All that for $31? Deal!
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Your math is off. You're getting all that for $41. You just get to spend an extra $10 for free.
 
Miles Quaritch said:
Great price for Motocross Madness. Also great to see I Am Alive finally going on sale.
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800 points is indeed a good price, I'll probably get it if it's decent..I'm also getting Black Knight Sword next week, I was waiting for a sale on this one.

BTW guys get I Am Alive at this price, it's a steal at 480 points.
 
Feindflug said:
800 points is indeed a good price, I'll probably get it if it's decent..I'm also getting Black Knight Sword next week, I was waiting for a sale on this one.

BTW guys get I Am Alive at this price, it's a steal at 480 points.
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gNKAlGT.png


Some pretty good titles on sale next week. IAL, BKS, Hell Yeah!, Geo Wars 2 (for 200 it's an absolute steal) and BCR1.
 
So after the first week how is Battle Rock T preforming, I assume not Castle Crashers numbers but its from a know dev and got a lot of press ( to other xbla titles these days).
 
Slygmous said:
Thanks for the advice guys, downloading both demos now to give a spin. The idea of 2 (3) games for the price of one sounds great.

Edit: MvC2 demo is multiplayer only! What were they thinking!?
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I don't know how much you value single player content, but all the MvC games are really, really light on SP content. The bonus with MvC:O is that it has a ton of that amazing single player unlock stuff that all the Iron Galaxy re-releases are known for where you earn points for completing mundane to complex challenges that you can do whenever and wherever and are tracked at all times and can use those to unlock bonus content, concept art, characters, etc.

Otherwise, MvC2 is the game you want because it pretty much has everything in terms of characters from the previous games, refined mechanics, plus more. MvC2 was a game that Capcom took and pumped pretty much every sprite they could find into it and is the ultimate fanservice game. Originally MvC2 had an unlock system, but the XBLA/PSN re-release has everything unlocked from the get-go.
 
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